Cary-Grove senior Kennedy Manning joined Cary-Grove’s winning football program three years ago.

The tiny wide receiver was the only girl on the freshman team in her fourth and final year of tackle football. She chose tennis as her fall sport the past two years, figuring the lack of physical contact would save her body for basketball season.

Then Cary-Grove announced it would field a flag football team for the first time this fall.

“It became an option,” said Manning, who played flag football in elementary school and started tackle football in sixth grade. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to play this [sport],’ because I love football.”

Wednesday night, Manning and her teammates ushered in perhaps the start of another winning Cary-Grove football program.

Behind Manning’s 180 rushing yards,

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